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The criticism of the iPad before its release was basically: what do I need it for? Having used it for a little while, I’m honestly not sure… Don’t get me wrong, I like my iPad, but I haven’t seen the (or even a) killer app for the iPad yet.

I’m generally using my iPad for things I used to do on my iPhone/iPod touch or laptop. I use it for email, web browsing, showing photos and videos, I brought it to a bar to show a fellow developer a system diagram1 – all useful things sure. However all things I would have done with my laptop/iPhone/iPod touch previously.

I think the answer is that there isn’t a killer app or killer activity for the iPad2 – it’s just a different way of computing. For many people, a device similar to the iPad will be their next computer. Like me, they will be able to do a number of things on it that they used to do on their old laptop or desktop – but they will enjoy it more on the more limited, focused and user-friendly device.

That was really hard actually, pulling up a PDF on the iPad is non-trivial – Safari ended up working best. [back]